An excavator thumb member is an implement which is typically pivotally mounted on the underside of a stick of an excavator and which opposes and cooperates with the excavator bucket for grasping material held between the bucket and the thumb. Typically in use, the thumb member is fixed relative to the stick and extends away from the stick. The bucket is curled and uncurled relative to the stick to grasp and hold the material to be handled. Prior art thumb members may be connected to the stick with a strut whose position can be adjusted to permit adjustment of the angle of the thumb member relative to the stick. The strut may consist of a rigid link detachably securable by pins to one of a number of brackets or attachment points provided on the stick. Typically the thumb member can be pivoted to a storage position in which the thumb member extends along the stick. However moving the thumb member to the storage position requires an operator to unpin the link and to use a lifting device to lift the thumb member and the link to a storage position in which it can be pinned to lock it to the stick.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.